Immigration programme on telly last night

[neil987]

My comment for what it's worth.

All these farmers etc comment that they need to pay such low wages that only immigrant workers will do the job seems like a crap business plan to me.

A business will only work if it factors in realistic costs and then sells the product at a realistic price.

With this lot, the price comes first, therefore needing low costs to be viable.

Surely, either they sell at a realistic price or move to another business.

Pay the rate of wages to encourage workers to do it like every other type of business in the country.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I've often been tempted to try to sit down and work out what would happen to supermarket pricing if all UK farmers in a concerted action refused to supply to them on the basis of the current - unsustainable, lower-than-cost-to-produce - pricing.

The mark up on foodstuffs as a poster above has noted are near-criminal in their extent. 600% as is expressed above is not, I believe, uncommon and even when you factor in the fixed and variable costs that the supermarkets have (buildings and staff etc) the profits made by them are still astronomical.

I wonder if this is a scenario that the s'markets have considered?

I bet they have - then concluded it would never happen.

[DodgyAgent]

The mark up on foodstuffs as a poster above has noted are near-criminal in their extent. 600% as is expressed above is not, I believe, uncommon and even when you factor in the fixed and variable costs that the supermarkets have (buildings and staff etc) the profits made by them are still astronomical.


And you call us Shysters

[SueEllen]

The mark up on foodstuffs as a poster above has noted are near-criminal in their extent. 600% as is expressed above is not, I believe, uncommon and even when you factor in the fixed and variable costs that the supermarkets have (buildings and staff etc) the profits made by them are still astronomical.


And you call us Shysters

But you are.

Supermarkets are just better at it.

[vetran]

have a look at the reduced aisle about 8pm. you know they are still making a profit on most things there.

[NoddY]

A more serious problem is the de-mechanisation caused by the availability of cheap labour. It suffocates innovation.

I suppose it's only a problem if you believe that people are capable of more than just picking vegetables.

There was a case of shellfish harvested in the North Sea, bypassing a fully operational automated shelling facility in Yorkshire, exported to the Far East to be manually shelled and then imported back into the UK.

[Ardesco]

To be honest I have to side with the farmer over the asparagus pickers. His immigrants were earning about £10/hour because of the speed they worked, whereas the Brits they brought in couldn't pick enough to cover minimum wage so the farmer was having to top up their wage to minimum wage. If all his workers were like the three muppets they got in to pick asparagus the cost price of his asparagus would probably double, and we all know the supermarket will tell him to feck off and go elsewhere to buy it.

He was questioned about the wage situation and his response was along the lines of:

"Why should I have to increase the money I pay to try and tempt somebody who doesn't want to work on my fields into doing so when I can find lots of people who want to do the job?"

Lets face it £10/hour is a pretty bloody good wage for unskilled labour, hell I would be up for that whilst stuck on the bench, the sad thing about this program is that all it has done is reinforce the farmers view that brits are bloody useless as crop pickers and the chances of him ever employing some now are probably non-existent.

Now I'm sure that the unemployed guys they picked were specifically picked because they had a chip on their shoulder about immigrant workers, and at least half of them would have been picked to fail so that they could make some "good TV". But I have to say i was cringing listening to half of the stuff they were coming out with.

The sad thing to take from this is that all of these employers were paying at least minimum wage, but they were having problems finding UK workers who were either competent, or wanted to work for minimum wage. I think the question that needs to be asked is why do unemployed brits not want to work for minimum wage? (Although you would need to get some figures from the job centre to find out how many british CV's are being put forward for these minimum wage jobs to find out if this is true)

[TimberWolf]

To be honest I have to side with the farmer over the asparagus pickers. His immigrants were earning about £10/hour because of the speed they worked, whereas the Brits they brought in couldn't pick enough to cover minimum wage so the farmer was having to top up their wage to minimum wage. If all his workers were like the three muppets they got in to pick asparagus the cost price of his asparagus would probably double, and we all know the supermarket will tell him to flip off and go elsewhere to buy it.

He was questioned about the wage situation and his response was along the lines of:

"Why should I have to increase the money I pay to try and tempt somebody who doesn't want to work on my fields into doing so when I can find lots of people who want to do the job?"

Lets face it £10/hour is a pretty bloody good wage for unskilled labour, hell I would be up for that whilst stuck on the bench, the sad thing about this program is that all it has done is reinforce the farmers view that brits are bloody useless as crop pickers and the chances of him ever employing some now are probably non-existent.

Now I'm sure that the unemployed guys they picked were specifically picked because they had a chip on their shoulder about immigrant workers, and at least half of them would have been picked to fail so that they could make some "good TV". But I have to say i was cringing listening to half of the stuff they were coming out with.

The sad thing to take from this is that all of these employers were paying at least minimum wage, but they were having problems finding UK workers who were either competent, or wanted to work for minimum wage. I think the question that needs to be asked is why do unemployed brits not want to work for minimum wage? (Although you would need to get some figures from the job centre to find out how many british CV's are being put forward for these minimum wage jobs to find out if this is true)

A lot of Brits do work for minimum wage. Its a bit different working in a shop though, where chances are you'd live long enough to retire.

There was only 6 weeks picking work at the farm, so the immigrants likely do similar picking jobs elsewhere and might therefore be expected to be faster to get up to speed. Unless you are pretty young, I doubt you'd get anywhere near £10/hour.

I'm more in the 'hang the farmer by his thumbs' camp.

[gingerjedi]

I think the question that needs to be asked is why do unemployed brits not want to work for minimum wage?

Because Britain is ******* expensive? I couldn't afford to live on NMW, my family would need to be in heavily subsidised council accommodation before I could even entertain the idea.

Not everyone who's struggling to get by lives on a council estate, many struggle to pay mortgages on relatively low wages without complaining. Ultimately migrants are helping Tesco make billions in profit, they are not helping people who just want a honest days pay for an honest days work.

There is nothing physically different between eastern Europeans and British people, they just have different motivations. I for one know my attitude and work ethic is directly proportional to the rate on offer, these people are no different.

[AtW]

His immigrants were earning about £10/hour because of the speed they worked, whereas the Brits they brought in couldn't pick enough to cover minimum wage so the farmer was having to top up their wage to minimum wage.

My first job in the UK was perl programming for £7/hour, that was back in 1999, I was pretty chuffed at the time, even though I wasn't pleased at having to pay BT bloody £100+ per month for offpeak dial up internet (I was careful not to use it too much at the time)